First, I want to ask a favor. Please take a minute and read the page A Note on Comments. Even if you’ve never commented here at Valence before and don’t plan on ever commenting I’d still appreciate if everyone checked it out. Go ahead…click it and meet me back here in 94.7 seconds..

Back? Great. As I write this post we are about eight days out from what I consider to be a monumental election day. As such, I can’t resist taking a small break from our philosophically inclined discussion on skepticism, truth and evidence to talk about politics. But don’t you worry Valencers, we’ll be back to probing the outer limits of faith and science soon.

I toyed with the idea of providing a comprehensive “Valence Voting Guide” for everyone to print out and take to the ballot box but thought better of it. I may be a headstrong voter but I know this kind of conceit would probably only invite a strong right hook from everyone. Instead I’d like to confine my discussion to one particular divisive proposition here in California: Prop 8.

For those of you outside California here is the skinny on Prop 8. Currently gay marriage is legal in California under the Equal Protection Clause of the California Constitution upheld by the State Supreme Court. Titled “Eliminates Rights of Same-Sex Couples to Marry”, Prop 8 will amend the California Constitution to recognize marriage as strictly between a man and woman. For more history you’ll have to read on at the link.

First, I’ll state that I unequivocally oppose Prop 8. I hold that marriage is a civil right that should not be withheld from consenting partners in this country. This is not a matter of whether homosexuality is in itself moral but instead a question of whether we should be denying equal treatment under the law based on sexual preference. We should not.

Now, I know the following question is inevitable: “But do you think homosexuality is immoral and what about the biblical judgment on the subject?”

I’m not planning on spending much time on this but in anticipation of the question I do want to preemptively answer. I do not consider homosexuality to be immoral and I think the biblical treatment of the subject is inconsistent at best and at worst is heavily biased by a homophobic cultural context that we should be striving to move beyond.

That being said, with this post I’m not particularly interested in addressing the morality of homosexuality itself (even though I anticipate this will be a hot topic in the comments section). Instead I would like to question the morality of the current religious outcry in support of Prop 8 and ergo against the homosexual community itself. Below is a promo video for “The Call” which is holding a rally here in San Diego on Nov. 1st.

Let me ask:

Is it moral to frame such a complex issue like gay marriage as the ultimate title bout between the very forces of Light vs. Darkness? No. Do I really need to remind us that these are people’s lives we are talking about? Committed and loving lives which are strikingly similar in character to yours saving they are gay. They are not the forces of darkness, they are not evil, they are not responsible for society’s decline and they are certainly not our enemies. To paint this issue as one of light and darkness is insultingly simpleminded. If we want to talk about darkness then let’s talk about slavery, torture, bigotry or poverty. How is it that none of these genuine moral causes is significant enough to mobilize Christians “this November” to fill an entire stadium in protest?

Is it honest to assert that the sanctity of marriage is threatened by allowing homosexuals to participate? No. First, if the very fabric of our marriages stays intact only by excluding gay relationships then this is more an indictment of the security upon which our marriages are built than it is an accurate measure of a threat. Second, the sanctity of my marriage is built on the love my wife and I have for each other and the commitment we have personally made, neither of which could ever be diminished by someone else’s relationship, gay or straight. To assert otherwise is to claim that the very existence of gay marriage itself literally has the power to steal away our ability to be fulfilled in marriage. It is misleading and dishonest to charge homosexuals with such a serious and yet unsubstantiated crime.

Is it right to characterize gay relationships as a flood from which God must protect us in his infinite mercy so much so that the very soul of our nation hangs in the balance? No. In fact this claim is startling in its hypocrisy. The soul of our nation is one that thrives on equitable rights and religious freedom. We have a secular state that is beautiful exactly because it seeks to provide rights to the least among us regardless of gender, race or sexual orientation. The Call pretty clearly states that Prop 8 is a religious law at its heart which is meant to levy back the dangerous floodwaters of homosexuality. The real flood I see here is a tide of religious fundamentalism which is trying to overwhelm our nation’s Establishment Clause and return us to a medieval theocratic state.

In conclusion, let me be clear that I’m not arguing that the Christians among us must revise their doctrine on homosexuality (even though I think they should). I understand that I probably haven’t changed anybody’s mind on whether homosexuality is a sin. Nevertheless, no matter what your personal verdict is on the morality of homosexuality, the Christian community’s response to gay marriage through The Call is inexcusable.

The response is unapologetically hateful, misleading, alienating, condemning and arrogant. Where is the emulation of Jesus? Where is the loving your neighbors, or removing the plank from your own eye, or feasting with those whom the religious elite label as sinners? Are we this unaffected by the teachings of our own savior? When asserting that this is an issue of light vs. darkness it is astounding to me with what stunning irony the majority of the Christian community has chosen the darkest of all positions.

For those Christians here at Valence I would like to add a special note. You may be reading this and thinking, “Well that’s not me. I’m not going be at The Call. Don’t make the mistake of lumping all Christians together.”

Let me say this simply: silence on this issue indicts every one of us as complicit. The gay community whom you claim to want to reach and love will only hear those speaking the loudest. From every pulpit, street corner and water cooler available we should be denouncing the kind of homophobic reaction The Call represents. Most of all we should be voting NO on Prop 8.